Helle Kaarem

Helle Kaarem is a Norwegian painter who lives and works in Oslo.

Intent and practice

I am interested in the ambiguity and drama of life.

I want to make paintings that through their visual and sensory presence directly address the nervous systems of others - their experience, knowledge, and longing – like music. 

The paintings are always compositions - exercises in which risk, presence, openness, and courage feel necessary to make decisions. 

The work consists of creating visual situations and leaving traces.

The paintings slowly come into being in dialogue with each other, tradition, experience, observation, and reflection. 

I relate to a modernist tradition where I work in a very direct and controlled way with the basic elements of painting - colour, form, decision, illusion, and matter. 

At the same time, I dwell in an expressive and romantic terrain where perception and emotion may be the main engines in a processing of the life experience itself.